Basics
NOTICE: 'For help with a specific dungeon, go here. '''NOTICE: '''For help with terminology, go here. '''NOTICE: '''If you need deck ideas or have ideas of your own, go here. Combat During combat, you and your opponent will take turns playing your Cards if an action is allowed. Each round is signified by the small circle with a number on the right side of the battlefield. When you begin a battle, it is often common for many rounds to pass before an action is allowed, in which case the game automatically fast-fowards. Round Phases Each round consists of multiple phases. These are not officially recognized phases but are clearly identifiable durring gameplay: *'Restack 1 - Enemy and Ally Cards in Play are restacked to the left position, eliminating gaps. *'Draw Phase' - Player draws 1 card if there are any remaining in the deck. If your hand is at max capacity of 5 then you will not draw a card and skip straight to Play Creature Phase. *'Play Creatures Phase' - Any Cards in your Hand with a wait time of 0 may now be Entered to the battlefield. You will need to choose the order / position of your cards and then click the Battle Button to continue to the next Phase. **Creatures will enter the battlefield one at a time and recieve their buffs and/or debuffs created by other creatures and heroes on the battlefield. **The newly summoned Creatures will then Distribute their Buffs and "Activates when Played" or S abilities, one at a time after they have been buffed and debuffed. *'Hero Phase' - The Hero uses their Hero Skill (if 100 Rage) and then Hero Talents available for Pre-Combat. *'Restack 2' - Enemy and Ally Cards in Play are restacked to the left position, eliminating gaps. *'Battle Phase' - Your Creatures will now attack the creature directly across from them on your opponents board. If there is no creature directly across from an attacking creature, it will directly attack the opposing hero. **Before physically attacking, each individual Creatures will use their Skills one at a time on the target(s) which best fit their description at that instant. ***''Example 1 - If the battle starts with two defending creatures with 700 HP remaining, but the first attacking creature deals 250 DMG to the first defending creature, then at the instant the second creature is ready to use their spells, any spell that targets the Lowest HP will instead target the first creature because it is now at 450 HP and the creature across from them is still at 700 HP.'' ***''Example 2 - The attacking Creature has only 200 HP remaining and is about to strike a creature that will return 250 DMG upon taking physical attacks. Even if another one of the attacking creature has a Heal ready, the interaction between the Attacking and Defending creature will occur first and in order of left-to-right.'' **Creatures that have a Life-Stealing or On-Hit affect will activate before further damage is taken. **Reactive / Thorn effects that activate on hit will still activate even if the defending creature dies. **Creatures that are Paralyzed or Entangled will not do physical attacks, but will still activate their per-turn Skills. **Creatures that are Frozen or Delayed will neither attack nor activate their per-turn Skills. **Rebirth and similar skills will activate at the end of each Creature's battle phase, so if the creature doesn't immediately come back into the deck then you wont need to worry about it doing so later. *'End Phase' - If either player no longer controls and creatures and no longer has any creatures in their deck, then the game will end in favor of the other player. Battlefield Layout Player Hands Each player has 5 spots for cards in their Hand. Creatures in your hand are not in the battlefield and cannot fight for or defent your hero. Keeping Creature cards in your hand can be a strategic way to negate special abilities and skills of your opponent, and waiting to deploy multiple creatures at once is a very common tactic. Creatures in your hand are safe from almost all Skills and attacks except for Disposal , which specifically targets a card in your hand. You and your opponent will be able to see Creatures in each other’s hands. With each round, the wait time of each Creature will go down by 1, allowing you to anticipate the upcoming events in the near future. A Creature can be played when its wait time reaches 0, and it is very common for the Computer Player to play their creatures as soon as they are ready. Battlefield Only Creatures in play on the Battlefield can take part in combat. Creatures attack targets that are directly in front of them. Your Creatures will attack you opponent’s Hero if there are no Creatures directly in front of them. Deck Your deck of cards can be found to the left of your hand and shows up as a light brown when there are cards still in your deck, and a darker brown when there are no more cards remaining. Your deck is "shuffled" so that you draw cards in a random order every game. Graveyard Creatures with 0 HP will be sent to the Graveyard. This puts them out of play generally, although they can be brought back into the game with skills like Recycle , or used offensively by special skills like Corpse Explosion . Auto Combat vs Manual Combat With the exception of the Arena, all battles initially allow for manual combat by default. This allows you to control the pace of the game. By clicking the "Auto" button, you can activate Auto-Combat which will automatically deploy Creatures as they become ready to play by reaching a wait time of 0. By using manual combat, you can strategically decide on the order / position in which Creatures are played and whether you want to play any Creatures for that particular round. You may engage Auto Combat at any time durring battle, but once it is initiated you may not switch back to manual combat. Auto Combat may not continue to inifinite turns as one may think. It is often wise to start a battle by holding on to your Creatures until the enemy has played a Creature or until you can play multiple Creatures at once. Depending on your deck and strategy, multiple creatures often offer additional protection and buffs and will allow you to overcome your enemy quickly before losing many creatures in the battle. Victory You’ll win by either destroying all of your opponent’s Creatures at the end of a Combat Round or by reducing their Hero’s Health to 0 at any time. Strategies Victory in Deck Heroes always has some element of randomization in it due to the Card game nature of it, but there are some solid strategies that can help you focus your deck into a fully-functioning team. By choosing a strategy early, you can guide the Enhancements and Explorations as well as Shard purchases in the direction you'll want to be in the long run. For now, what's dominating the arena are multi-faction, non-strategy decks with 8-10 5 Star Creatures and a 4 Star Hero. While this works and may be the best use of effort for a certain segment of the game, using proper synergy and a well thought out strategy can make some less powerful Creatures absolutely shine on the battlefield. It's also important to note that combining strategies can give your deck additional diversity and allow it to overcome new obstacles. Since every strategy seems to have a counter, with a hybrid strategy design your deck may manage to triumph even when the odds are against you. Buff'n'Stuff One of the first strategies that new players will pick up on after careful observation of their lower level cards is the ability of many Human and Faen creatures to greatly enhance similar other Creatures in play. When done on a small scale this can sometimes help win a tough battle. When done deliberately, though, this can create an overwhelming team of boosted and diverse creatures that just wont seem to die. General Tactics: Hold back on deploying Creatures until you can release multiple buffing creatures at a the same time and control the battlefield. Use heals on your Creatures and disables on your enemy to further enhance the longevity of your Creatures and allow you to overwhelm the enemy Creatures or Hero. Focus on either big basic stats to try to bring their Hero down, or focus on Spell Casters that do sniper or area damage. One shining example of a Buff'n'Stuff Hero in the early game is Captain Crook. His standard Talents are perfect for buffing and slowing down the enemy team, and his Hero Skill, Pirate Jig, is a phenominal example of a global Buff to give your creatures an edge in battle. Use Captain Crook with some Human Creatures with the Sage Advice and Humanity Creature Skills and sit back as your deck buffs itself into a whole new level of control and domination. Combine a Techno-Chief, an Oracle (Explore 6-3, 6-6, 6-9) and a Royal Knight (D3-9 Hard Reward) for buffs and creatures and keep them alive with a couple of Vicars. Don't forget to upgrade them all to level 10 so they are pumping out their best Creature Skills and Buffs. Faen is also quite good at the Buff'n'Stuff strategy but lack the raw stats and ATK bonuses that Humans have readily available. Instead, use Buffs, Healers and multiple-target Creature Abilities to control the board and wipe out the enemy's creatures. Faen is especially effective for the Gauntlet and for Dungeon Conditions that require you to have a limited amount of Creatures in your Graveyard. Use your free Master Guide (Log-in Reward), Treant Guide and Centaur Guide to add massive healing and additional HP to your Creatures. Round out the creature destruction with your Flame Brave and a Faen Marksman. Buff'n'Stuff is a great fit for a new player looking to get further than they should in the Explorer's Gate and is a great way to clear some harder dungeons to get additional rewards. Faen will eventually putter out without the neccessary fire power, but keep an eye out for great high-end Heroes and Creatures that continue the trend. Lockdown There will reach a point in each player's experience when their cards are so severly outmatched by the Dungeons that even Buffing doesn't seem to do the trick. It's right around this time, though, that some very powerful Lockdown abilities start to become available through new Heroes and Creatures. General Tactics: With a Lockdown deck, your Creatures will focus on Freezing, Delaying, Entangling and Paralyzing the enemy Creatures so that they are unable to attack or cast their Creature Skills. Disables will only activate on your turn durring your offensive phase, so the enemy has a good chance to whack your creatures hard when they bring out a new Creature onto the battlefield. Keep a close eye on what creatures your opponent can deploy for the next few turns and hold back your extra creatures if neccessary. You don't want your creatures getting hit by a powerful enemy Creature, so sometimes its worth it to let your Hero take a hit. Lockdown is easily achieved with Faen decks and can be morphed from a Buff'n'Stuff with less effort than starting over which makes Lockdown a solid mid-game strategy. Faen uses a slower strategy that is backed up with Heals and Buffs, but Mortii can use Lockdown with a more direct approach which aims for the enemy Hero while their Creatures are locked down, and Humans with Sneak greatly enhance the damage output on disabled enemies For Faen, the Creature Skills you're looking for are Cloudburst and Tempest for Paralysis, Frost Arrow for Freeze, Discord for Confusion, and Delay and Entangle for Lockdowns. Round out the Lockdowns with some focused Creature Skills to whittle your helpless opponents down to nothing. A perfect Lockdown team might include your Master Guide (Log-in Reward), Voltic Priests, Frost Wardens and Dream Healers with a few Faen Archers or''' Faen Marksmen''' to bring down the enemy creatures one-by-one. If you have an opportunity to get a Creature with the skill Picking Off, that works exceptionally well. Put a Devil Hunter Hero at the helm of this team if you get the chance, because with his Entangle Hero Skill he is the master of the Lockdown. Even his Hero Talents Static and Deep Freeze play perfectly into this strategy. Watch out for enemy Creatures with Immunity as the protection it grants will also prevent your Lockdowns from landing on them. Most lockdown decks aren't strong enough to contend with an Immune-heavy deck since the base stats are much lower. Straight for the Jugular As you progress through the middle and higher tiers of gameplay, you may begin to notice Creature teams that are extremely difficult to destroy. Whether it's utlra-beefy Humans, or Mortii with Rebirth, or even Faen with Recycle, these Decks are built to keep going and it can seem almost impossible to win through a Creature Victory. Straight for the Jugular focuses instead of destroying the enemy Hero through or around the enemy's creatures. General Tactics: The goal will always be to get as much damage off directly to the enemy Hero as possible. You cannot completely ignore the enemy team's Creatures, since unattended too they may overwhelm your team and stop them in their tracks. By combining Lockdown techniques or by using tanky Creatures, you can survive the enemy long enough to bring their Hero down. Generally speaking, use any opportunity where the Hero is unguarded to strike, including in early Rounds. Avoid creature-targeting talents and abilities except for Lockdowns or debuffs. There aren't too many Heroes and Hero Talents that will help with this task, so it's important to focus on your goal when using this strategy. Chaos Witch makes the perfect leader for a Mortii team because of her Hero Skill and Katrice and Agni can also fill in that role quite well, although Agni will not match the faction of your creatures. When selecting Hero Talents, Mortii should focus on Life or Vitality for buffs and Shadow Hex as a secondary talent to help finish off the enemy Hero. Straight for the Jugular relies heavily on a handful of skills, so aquiring the right Creatures is extremely important. You're looking for Creatures with the following skills: Stabthrough, Curse, '''and Godswill'. '''Ambush' can also help inflict massive damage early if you can get a free shot in before there is a defending creature across from you. Mortii also excels at the Rebirth skill, so choose Creatures with this skill to extend your destruction and give your deck logevity. This deck is exceptionally weak against the Hero Elder Mawrek, who does massive amounts of Lifesteal as part of his Hero Skill. The Long-Game There are a particular set of Buffs and Debuffs that continue to build each turn the Creature is in play. These "stacking" buffs can often allow for some extremely powerful Creatures with ATK and HP far beyond what is regular in average gameplay. While it may seem appealing to have a Creature with 3500 ATK or to reduce all of the opponent's ATK to 0, the trick with the Long-Game deck is to ensure that your creatures are protected long enough to see the end game where they can secure a massive upper hand. ' General Tactics:' The goal with the Long-Game is to play your Creatures as soon as they will be "safe" enough to avoid death and ready to start their buff stacking. Different buff stacking Creature Skills require different scenarios: for instance the Anger and Bloodlust skills require enemy Creatures on the battlefield in order to activate. Obviously, stacking debuffs also require that the enemies be out in the Battlefield in order to lower their stats. Long-Game decks will almost always rely on Tanky creatures to withstand the initial onslaught of the opponent. Many Heros can be used in the Long-Game strategy, but they should fit to enhance the strengths and cover the weaknesses of your Long-Game Creatures. For Humans, Captain Crook offers a relatively weak long-game buff, as does Sir Valmourn. Diva can be used to Heal your creatures to allow them to continue to build strength, while Royal Guard can ensure that your creatures won't die while they are gaining strength. The main bonus for Human Long-Game is the Hero Talents Ice Shield and Ice Shell, which are buffs that will greatly enhance the survivability of your Creatures. It is highly recommended that your Hero is equiped with these talents. Neanders have more diverse options for the Long-Game, including Paw Master, the king of the Long-Game. This also Includes the Neander (Hero)Talent Fleshfeat, which adds a Level 15 Life Sap to all your creatures. Zora Marauder Deserves a special Mention, as she is the only 2 star that is even able to beat several 5 stars. This hero can produce Ridiculous Results in Long-Game Battles. Basically every time her hero skill turns "On", your creatures will gain 20-56% of the HP lost by enemies. Using a Mythril Drone to protect your deck from Magic, and several Frost Armor tanks to keep the line in check, even your wimpiest Creature can be a Damage Monster. With Bullseye or Chainstrike, this will be even more deadly. Guild Maps are a Zora Marauder's HAVEN. As said before, using Tanky-Melded Frost Ragers, Oracles, Panther Chiefs, Techno Chiefs, and one Mythril Drone in a guild map can do up to, 1433K Damage. I even saw a Phanther chief get a permanent, whopping build up of "24,300 DMG" past Round 90. Keep Zora Marauder, and level her up. Long-Game Creatures require sustainability and stacking buffs along with good starting HP. Look for Bloodrage, Bloodlust, Warlust & Anger to roll up massive ATK stats. Plague, Weakness, Gas Cloud & Fatigue are all stacking debuffs that will render the enemy useless. Human decks can look to Colossus, Seraph and Juggernaut as great 4-star options supported by Techno-Chief and Oracle. As for Neander, Quetzalcoatl is the king Dragon for debuffing your opponent into a pile of worthless goop, while Panther Chief and Sekhmet make obvious choices. This deck can be countered by fast-acting decks, unless you choose to include Hero Heals like Bless and Faith Heal. Dispose'em all Sometimes your cards must have a card to get rid of, whether it's Great Mystic or Hippoylta with Multiple Revive-type Capabilities, or a Quezalcoatl that constantly weakens your creatures, or even a Paragon who stops your Recycle Tactics. It's time those Instakill, Retreat, and Disposal abilities come to light. Creatures with Disposal : Death's Angel, Balthazar, Gorgon, Hanuman Creatures with Instakill : Cyclops, Undying Will, Hellwolf, Death's Angel The trick is to Instakill, Dispose, and Retreat the enemy as much as possible. Dispose cards that pose a threat to you, and one the enemy is out, use Instakill to Randomly Weaken the enemy and Retreat to make the Stronger, Tougher cards out of play. Even in late-game, where decks are literally PACKED with Immunity, this line up still can be a great solution in taking out Low-Immunity cards specifically. It's always good to have a Disposal or Instakill card in your deck whether it's an Aggressive deck or a Sustainable deck, as it makes a good support. Revival Train Sometimes you feel like with your current setup, no matter how perfect your stratagies might be, or how strong your deck is, you will always getting up lost to enemies, whether it's higher level Dungeons, Ridiculously hard Checkpoint Trials, P2W Whales on the Gauntlet, or even Some higher-level Grimoires. Bypassing this weakness is difficult. But there is a way. A way to make your 10 Cards into 20 Cards. By Recycling, Reviving, Rebirthing, and Ressurecting your creatures, you can essentially gain two copies of each creature. Once dead, they will find themselves back on duty. The first such Recycle Cards that Newcomers will have is Thalassa who provides a Overwhelming Impact on low-level Dungeons even if his Recycle 1 is the simpliest of all Ressurection Skills. In Mid-Game, Players can find carriers for Recycle, because Thalassa's survivability is not that good. * Horned Beast - Explore Map 5 * Harbinger - Map 6 Secret Dungeon on Hard * Swordmaster - Dungeon 5-8 on Hard * Dullahan - Fairly Common from the Coupon Bag * Light Brave- Also Fairly Common from Coupon Bags * Colossus - Explore Map 5 * Royal Dragon - Boosters and Coupon Bag However, other than Thalassa, there aren't many Recycle Cards. The only other Recyclists available are Hippoylta and Dahlia, both with Recycle 2, However they are EXTREMELY hard to get for F2P Players. Most people will go a long time before getting any. Revive is the Overpowered, Upgraded Version of Recycle, as it will just revive, as the name states, a creature directly from the graveyard into play. Unfortunatly, the only Coeveted Reviver is Great Mystic, and it's almost impossible for a F2P Player to get their hands on her. Fortunatly, the mines offer access to Oinari, who has a S Version of the skill. And Fae Firstborn, this time with a D Version. ' ' ' ' Berserk ATK "Note : Requires a 5 star hero of each faction!!" You know what the enemy lineup might be. It's disgusting. Mimir's Tree with a level 10 Immunity Rune plus Frost Armor, Mythril with Frost Armor and also an Immunity Rune level 10, a fucking Recycle 3 Dragonlord (A.K.A. Another Immunity Rune 10 Carrier), etc, etc, etc. At this point none of the stratagies involved above doesn't actually work. No matter how to Buff them, they will just get overpowered by the tankiness of the enemy. Lockdowns? Meh with that Immunity level 10 Rune you'll just heal the enemy by 3k health. Hero Killer? lol thinking of that when most of the highers level dungeons Heroes have higher health than the guild map Heroes. (A.K.A. Hero Vigor Rune V level 10). Long-Game? lol those enemies are meant to last forever and long-game doesn't exactly mean forever. Also both team's heroes start losing a certain amounts of HP every round after a certain round, and you're already insanely overpowered in Hero Health Status. Disposal? With that Immunity? Revival? Oh sure let's get rid of the Immunity 10 Paragon first lol. Wish your Bullseye creatures were like, Invincible? 5k ATK Anathema eh? How awesome would that be? Most people don't even know that's possible. First off, 5 Star Heroes can learn by default, the talents "Berserk" and "War Hungry". Odin and Alchemist come with them out-of-the-box. They grant all of your creatures battleblow for one turn. Second off, this isn't the 50% 20%-300% Battleblow. It's a 100% Chance to upgrade your attack by 30-300%. Third off, people prefer HP buffs to ATK Buffs, but a Battlecry 10 can be a sure thing with the other talents. So basically if War Hungy and Berserk proc. at the same time, your creatures will get a x9 ATK Boost. Considering the average Fighter has 550-750 ATK at level 15, with Battlecry they will get 950-1150 ATK. With Runes that amount can reach a maximum of 1300. Now comes the Bersekr/War Hungy Combo. 1300 x 9 = 11700. 11700 ATK, Enough to One shot all of the current existing Creatures, even Sacrificed or Runed Up. That's savage. Now trying to put that in your brain. Done? Try putting Bullseye with it. Did I mention a Frost armor Mythril+Mimir? Oh they're now cute let them taste my Sacrifice 8 Anathema with +900% ATK lol Just spam your deck with Bullseye creatures, Michael, Valkryie, Anathema, Pit Dragon, Angel Prime, Scorpio, and if you're lucky enough - The Twins. They should wipe the whols board clean. Category:General Gameplay